


La légende du potiron

by Gaia_bing



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Divergence - Post-Avengers (2012), Established Relationship, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Grief/Mourning, Halloween, Happy Ending, M/M, Maybe - Freeform, Not Captain America: The First Avenger Compliant, Not Captain America: The Winter Soldier Compliant, Reunions, Romance, Supernatural Elements, Traditions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-05 10:47:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16366400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gaia_bing/pseuds/Gaia_bing
Summary: "If at midnight, the candle suddenly blows out, then you'll know that that person is where he or she is meant to be."





	La légende du potiron

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, so yet *another* Halloween story yes I know, but this one just wouldn't leave my head no matter how hard I tried, so I head to let it out. Hope you enjoy! :)

_**October 29th, 1936...** _

  
It had been two weeks since the funeral. Since Steve Rogers, having lost his mother and his only family, had moved in with his best friend James Buchanan Barnes.

  
Unfortunately for Bucky (that's how Steve and everyone else liked to call him), even with a roommate Steve still looked and and felt like he was all alone in the world.

  
He'd just stare out of the window, saying and doing nothing, until it was time to go to sleep, sometimes not having not enough strength and will to get up the next morning.

  
It had been two weeks, but to Bucky it had felt like an eternity. And he wouldn't even begin to try to count how much it's felt like for his best friend.

  
Seeing the blond like this, silently wasting away when he wasn't that strong to begin with, was pure torture.

  
If only there was something that he could do to cheer the other man up, to make him smile once more, _anything_ to make him like the Steve that he'd been once before...

  
Looking at the small calendar hanging on the living room wall, Bucky silently grinned to himself...

  
It was October 29th and he knew _just_ what to do.

  
************

  
**_October 30st, 1936._ **

  
It was with a groan and a shiver that Steve walked through the emergency escape stairs and up to the roof of the apartment building.

  
What in the world was he doing here anyway? Well, Bucky _had_ acted strange all day, without an explanation and even a word as he went out early in the morning and had only just come back a few minutes ago...

  
And when Steve, wondering what he and his best friend could do for dinner, was only left with a slight grin from the brown-haired man and an index finger pointing upwards, before bowing out of their shared place once more.

  
So technically, that meant that Bucky must have wanted for them to have dinner on the roof, since they were living on the last story of the building and there wasn't any other place more upwards than this one.

  
But why the roof? And why today? It was cold and it was dark and Steve still had some grieving to do and _god_...

  
All those thoughts suddenly left the blond's mind when he finally climbed the last stairs and felt his feel hit cement...

  
And saw...

  
Bucky standing there, with what looked like a pumpkin in his arm. It'd been rid of its insides, but its orange exterior was still full and blank.

  
"Buck? Wha-?" the blond started to say, completely confused as to why his best friend was standing there with a half-finished pumpkin, but the other man put a finger on his lips and recounted with a smile:

  
"See, there is an old tale in my family that says that if you recently suffered the loss of someone close to you around the time of Halloween, you can find out if they are where they're meant to be. All you have to do is carve a face on a pumpkin all of your thoughts about this person as you do it and, just before midnight and the 31st comes along, you light a candle while you pour all of your love about this person. If at midnight, the candle suddenly blows out, then you'll know that that person is where he or she is meant to be."

  
Brandishing a small candle and a set of matches in his right hand, Bucky finished his story by proposing:."So I thought, since one of you worries about your mother is about her being in Heaven like she wanted, why don't we use this and see if she's where she's meant to be? That'd be at least get one less sad thought out of your mind..."

  
A single tear slowly rolled down the blond's face at the story and the proposal he'd just heard.

  
But still, and to Bucky's own delight, he did the one thing he hadn't done in over two weeks...

  
He smiled, as he grabbed the orange fruit from his best friend's hands and went to work.

  
***************

  
_**October 30th, 2012.** _

  
_"This is stupid."_   Steve thought to himself as the elevator that lead to the Tower's roof dinged and the doors opened.

  
_"I can't believe that I'm doing this."_   he once again pondered as he sat on the ledge of the glass and cemented place and took a gander at his acquisitions:

  
-An emptied pumpkin,

  
-A black marker,

  
-A large carving knife,

  
-A single, white candle

  
And a lighter to finish things off.

  
He knew that what he was about to do was absolutely fruitless.

  
It had been the wind that blew up that candle at midnight back then, _not_ some celestial answer that his mother had reached Heaven.

 

It had been the _wind_.

  
Nothing more, nothing less.

  
He knew that all of this was just an old wives' tales, or even worse, something a friend of his had made up long ago to make him feel better when he'd felt like he was all alone in the world.

  
But the thing was, right now, even with new friends and a new world buzzing all around him, Steve Rogers felt as alone as he'd been feeling when he'd lost his only family.

  
Maybe...maybe even more more than then, when he really thought about it.

  
And it was because...because his _entire_ world was gone now...

  
And that didn't mean the 1940's and his old Howlies team.

  
Steve sighed as he looked at the night sky.

  
He still remembered the balm that he'd felt over his heart when the light had went out (because of the _wind_ ) at the twelfth stroke of midnight.

  
And the similar smile on his friend's face...

  
His friend...

  
His best friend...

  
That one that had taken care of him without a bad word or a complaint,

  
The one that had tried to make a home with him...

  
Even though to Steve, the other man _himself_ had always been home.

  
His home...

  
His everything...

  
His James Buchanan Barnes.

  
Steve could still vividly remember the warmth of the other man's lips as the two of them sat there, sharing their very first kiss, while smoke was still coming out of the just wind-the-blown-out carved pumpkin...

  
But now...now Bucky wasn't around to comfort him anymore, to tell him made-up stories to cheer him up anymore...

  
Most of all, Bucky wasn't here to _love_ him anymore.

  
He knew what he was about to do would mean absolutely nothing. He'd still be in 2012 and not back in his old times, who had passed and who was sick would all still be the same...

  
But somehow, in some way, something...or _someone_ , was calling to him to do this...

  
To pose this gesture,

  
To get something done, even though it wasn't worth anything,

  
To maybe even, get some closure on one particular question:

  
Had Bucky gotten out those Alps mountains, or at least did his spirit did, somehow?

  
Was he in Heaven, like _maybe_ his mother was?

  
Was he where he was meant to be after all this time?

  
Steve sighed once more as he grabbed the dark pencil and the giant fruit.

  
_"Better get this done now and get these stupid thoughts out of my head"_ , the blond man thought to himself as he went to work.

  
*************

  
Somewhere, on another roof, the Winter Soldier congratulated himself on a job well done.

  
Six highly-placed diplomats all seated at the same Ritz-Carlton table..

  
Not bad, not bad for a single sniped bullet.

  
_His handler would be proud of him... well at least, for once_ , he thought to himself as he put the visor of his gun and put it back in its designated briefcase.

  
He was about to jump onto the pavement and make his way back to where he'd been (a very lonely and _very_ cold bank vault)...

  
When the glint of a light suddenly caught his eye.

  
The Asset blinked, once...twice...making sure his eyes weren't deceiving him.

  
It wasn't the stars up above, it wasn't some traffic light down below, that he knew.

  
It was dim, it was shimmering...

  
And it was _calling_ to him.

  
The Soldier looked at his Hydra-made watch.

  
_11:55PM._

  
He had been ordered to get back from this mission before midnight.

  
Mr. Pierce...everyone would be angry if he didn't follow the orders.

  
And if everyone was angry, that meant that the chair and the electricity would return,

  
And Bu- _??..._

  
**??**

  
And the _Winter Soldier_ didn't want any of that, at least for tonight.

  
But, at the same time, that small light was so _damn_ enticing...

  
Dancing from all the way over there...

  
Blinking once more, the Asset picked up his briefcase and, for the first time in its life:

  
Defied Hydra's orders.

  
***************

  
Steve cursed to himself as the elevator doors dinged once more.

  
_"Why did I leave my stupid cellphone all the stupid way to my stupid floor when I could have easily brought up with me to the stupid roof of this stupid Tower and I didn't have to go up and down and waste my stupid time where--uh..."_

  
His internal rambling were suddenly stopped when he noticed something strange standing on the roof.

  
No, not something strange,

 

 _Someone_ strange.

  
Entirely dressed in black, with an entire arm and carrying a briefcase all made of metal, long hair hiding his or her face, crouched over like an animal, his of her head perched over the lit pumpkin Steve had just left there before realizing he'd forgotten his cellphone downstairs and therefore, could be missing some very important Avengers business.

  
Steve was about to carefully approach the person and ask him or her what in the world they were doing here and why did they seem so particularly fascinated by a simple carved Halloween pumpkin, when the person answered all those questions for him,

 

By speaking in a voice he never thought he'd hear again:

  
_"...If at midnight, the candle suddenly blows out, then you'll know that that person is where he or she is meant to be..."_

  
"Oh god..." was all Steve could say, feeling his heart accelerate as...

  
As the blackly-clad person stood up and...

  
Those eyes, those beautiful brown eyes that had sparkled as much then as they did now met his own and the man, who Steve had just poured all of his thoughts and love for as he made and lit up his festive decoration, added as a single tear slowly rolled down his tired but somehow still alive face...

  
"I _am_ where I'm meant to be."

  
With memories pouring down like rain all over the two, Steve Rogers and James Buchanan Barnes fell once again in each other's arms, happily kissing and crying in 2012 just like they did in 1936.

  
And somehow, somewhere, coming from _maybe_ the wind...

  
Or maybe _not_...

  
The light of the candle inside of the carved and much-loved pumpkin suddenly blew out.

  
As the twelfh strike of midnight rang,

  
And two lost people found themselves where they were _always_ meant to be.

**Author's Note:**

> And yes, I know that pumpkin isn't *exactly* "potiron" in French but i wanted a cool title, so there you go. :)
> 
> ETA: Yeah, another one that I moved up the date to coincide with its purposed Holiday. :)


End file.
